Brownsville
by Ice Truck Killer
Summary: A serial killer has chosen Miami as his playground and it is up to the Miami Homicide Department, along with a specialist FBI force, to bring him down. But with secrets and lies and past wrongs, who is to say it will all go swimmingly? SasuNaru.
1. Chapter I

Brownsville: Chapter One

It was so unbelievably sticky in the heat of Miami's fizzing summer. Even with the convertible car's roof down, the oncoming breeze was still warm and stagnant. Naruto glared from under his fringe. He was normally a summer person but such weather extremes pushed him way out of his comfort zone. His fingers were sweaty and slipped on the leather steering wheel and he was really regretting choosing wear a long sleeved shirt today. The traffic lights turned green and he pulled the car into the multi-storey car park, finally feeling the relief of shade as he purposefully parked his car in the coolest part. It wasn't all too bad, he reminisced as he took out his briefcase and lab-coat before reattaching the roof and locking the car, there had been the sweltering summer of 2005, and at least he wasn't pasty pale. He smirked a little at the thought of the poor pale buggers before dropping his keys into his pocket, running a hand through his damp hair and heading towards the building opposite the car park. Naruto worked as a forensic scientist and was based at the homicide division at Miami metropolitan police. Despite being fairly young in the forensic community, he was already establishing himself as an upcoming star, but he took his time and hadn't rushed in to any offers, mostly because they sounded far too good to be true, and he was with his family right now and couldn't imagine being elsewhere.

He strolled into the building, flashing his ID card at the woman in reception and conversing in general chitchat with the security guards on patrol as they did the obligatory bag and pocket search. With a swing in his step he caught the elevator, pressed the button and watched the doors close – it never failed to amuse him how slowly they shut.

"Hold the lift!" a voice shouted and he immediately thrust his arm between the closing doors, they reopened and the man strolled in, arms full with a big cardboard box and a holier-than-thou smirk ever-present on his face. They rode the first two floors in silence, but Naruto could feel the man's gaze on his face as he wished that homicide was on a lower floor.

"You're the lab geek, right?" The guy was still smirking, and Naruto couldn't help but feel slightly creeped out to say the least. Nonetheless if Naruto was anything, it was friendly, so he replied as such.

"Yeah," he grinned, "what gave it away?"

"I would say your lab coat but I already knew who you were." His voice was airy and posh, and he seemed to be in the constant state of peering down his nose at people. Naruto, all of a sudden taken aback, was unsure whether or not he should know the person before him. He didn't seem at all familiar.

"Er... I'm sorry, should I know you?"

He scoffed haughtily. "No, you know my cousin, Itachi Uchiha, and Sasuke as well, you work with them." Naruto nodded in realisation. "I'm Sai Uchiha, I'll be joining your team presently." Jesus, Naruto thought, the language this guy used, it was like talking to a lawyer.

"Oh cool," Naruto grinned, "good to have you on board. I'd shake your hand if you didn't have them full." The elevator dinged to announce their arrival and they entered the main office, Sai sauntering off in the direction of Itachi Uchiha's office where the older looked up from his desk, saw him through the window and nodded in acknowledgement. Naruto just stood dumbfounded for a few seconds before chuckling and heading to his office, dropping his briefcase by the door and hanging his lab-coat on the hat stand. There were reports he needed to do stacked up on the desk, surrounded by empty cans of Red Bull and Lucozade and takeaway boxes from all-nighters he'd pulled in the last week.

Hopefully everything could calm down now, they'd caught the guy and all that needed doing now was to present his forensic findings in report format, which he was well under way with. This, combined with the first night of decent sleep he had had in weeks, made this week's Naruto a lot less stressed than last week's. He gathered up the rubbish from his desk, stacking the folders neatly and dropping the cans and boxes in the bin, before slumping into his seat to formalise his findings. A knock on the door stopped his scribbling mid-sentence as he muttered a quick 'come in'. The door opened to reveal a figure dressed in a black suit, complete with white shirt and navy tie, his shoulder-length black hair tied into a neat ponytail; Itachi Uchiha.

"Naruto, I need you on patrol today." He announced.

"But-" Itachi cut him off before he could say anything.

"I know, you have work to do, but I'm sure Tsunade will do the reports for you if you fill her in on what she missed whilst on holiday." There was a moment of silence. "I just need someone to go and make sure Sai behaves himself, you don't even have to do much."

"Alright, alright, I'll get the old-hag to do them," Naruto groaned, "but you owe me one. And I need a fucking holiday soon, Itachi, you're a fucking slave driver." Itachi smirked and then shrugged.

"Go on, clean up the streets of Miami for me, Squirt." Squirt was a nickname that had stuck for two reasons – originally it had been coined when Naruto was obsessed with Pokémon's Squirtle character, but it seemed to encompass his height as well. It wasn't that Naruto was ridiculously short, he was just shorter than average, and it didn't help that most of his friends and colleagues were a lot taller in height. What he lacked in height he made up for in heart, anyone would tell you. But heart doesn't really help when you want to get the biscuits from the highest shelf in Walmart.

Through the glass window Naruto could see the rest of the patrol assembling. Sasuke, Kiba, Neji and Sai stood chatting amicably in kevlar jackets, that could only be described as unbearable in this sweltering heat. He moved to join them, leaving his house keys and other valuables on his desk before strolling into the main bullpen.

"Ah, Squirt's finally here," Kiba all but shouted as Naruto quirked his eyebrows, "took you long enough man."

"Did you get lost in your own office or something, dobe?" Sasuke Uchiha was the bane of Naruto's existence, and everyone but Naruto could see it. His mouth was like a pistol shooting bullets at Naruto every five minutes, the insults never stopped and Naruto never appeared effected on the outside, but occasionally you could see it was getting to him.

"Eh... good one teme," Naruto mumbled as he grabbed a vest and gun, despite the fact he hoped to stay in the car for the entire time.

"I know." Sasuke smirked. "Right, so we're all patrolling the same area today so we're going to take two cars; one leads, one follows. I want Naruto with me, and the rest of you in the other car. Sai, you drive, don't let Kiba anywhere near the wheel."

* * *

><p>Naruto didn't understand why he kept getting put on these patrols, he wasn't even a certified policeman, he could carry a gun but at the end of the day all he was was a forensic nerd. He sat in the car as the others scoped out a potential drug dealer's flat, playing Sudoku on his phone to pass the time – on the hardest level, of course.<p>

There was a deafening ring that Naruto immediately recognised as being a gunshot and he immediately radioed Itachi.

"Itachi we have an unknown gunshot, all other officers are inside the building, just east of Boulevard Way. Send backup immediately."

"Copy that, Squirt."

A woman came barrelling out of the flat that the officers had been in and in a blur she went down, Naruto finally hearing the second shot as she hit the floor. He scrambled out of the car to help, she wasn't in a fatal position but she was in need of serious medical care. He quickly ripped his shirt of, balling it to push it against the bullet wound in the woman's stomach.

"Alright, alright, stay with me, stay with me, okay, you're doing great, just hold that there and apply pressure and I'll call the hospital and everything will be okay." He ran his hands through her hair as she whimpered in pain, speedily phoning 911 and alerting them of the problem. Dropping his phone he helped her apply pressure, his eye-line wandering to the group of dumbfounded policemen. Now wasn't time to play who-dunnit, a woman's life was at risk, one of them had shot her, and none of them were helping.

Naruto rode to the hospital with the woman, all the while stroking her hair and whispering comforting messages to her. She was called Bambi Harley and had been the personal escort and stripper for the drug dealer, who had shot himself and committed suicide in the apartment just moments before. She had ran because she was scared and panicked and she'd just seen her lover kill himself. And then she'd been shot, and Naruto was sure that had done wonders do how scared she was.

It was after lunch when Naruto returned to the office, wearing scrubs a helpful medic had supplied, after a while of laughing at him sat looking extremely awkward, shirtless surrounded by perverted middle aged women. The medics had given him his shirt back but he doubted he'd ever get the bloodstains out, and even then he'd probably never wear it again, which was a shame since it was his favourite shirt.

"How is she?" Itachi asked whilst Naruto was washing the blood from his hands in the homicide department's toilets.

"Good ... she's stable. She was extremely lucky."

"I know this might be a bit harsh on you but I really want to get down to who did this today, do you think you'd be able to come to a meeting about it in my office in half an hour?" Naruto sighed, running his hand through his hair before nodding.

"Yeah I guess, just let me quickly go home and change." Itachi nodded as he caught sight of the bloodstains on Naruto's slacks.

"Take a shower if you need to, and after we have this sorted, you have the rest of the week off. You were right, I'm too much of a slave driver with you, you need some time to recuperate. Go fishing or something." Itachi smiled before bundling him up into his arms for a brotherly hug. "See you in a bit."

* * *

><p>Elsewhere in the office, all hell had broken loose. When Itachi had mentioned to the others that they were going to have a meeting to find out who had shot her, everything went into meltdown.<p>

"Who the fuck did it?"

"Don't look at me you jackass, what the fuck are you on?"

"Yeah well I think if anyone did it it's got to be Kiba"

"Oh my God, what is your beef with me?" Ten conversations occurred at the same time before a normally silent Sasuke intervened.

"**Everyone. Shut. The. Fuck. Up.**" He growled, "How to we sort this out?"

"Well we're all pretty new here, one slip up and we're gone man, we're practically on probation as it is," Kiba moaned, "Awh man, I can't lose my job now, there's none anywhere else."

"Kiba, none of us are going to lose our jobs," Neji stated calmly, "we just need a scapegoat. How about the drug dealer boyfriend?"

"What, he ran outside, shot her, came back inside, knowing full well we were there, and then shot himself?" Sasuke asked sarcastically. "Nice, Neji, nice."

"Well there's always Naruto..." came the reply from the previously silent Sai. Everyone was silent for a moment as they contemplated it.

"No, no, no, no, no. No way man, no way." Kiba whispered ferociously, "I can't believe you're contemplating framing him for this. He's _Naruto_, man. Fucking _**Naruto**_. Naruto who helped Neji when his parents split up, helped me with _so _fucking much when I've needed him, and is Sasuke's fucking best friend. What the fuck are you guys thinking?"

"Look man," Sai said in response, "we get it, it's Naruto. But what else can we do?" There was silence as everyone searched for an answer. There really was nothing much else they could do.

"I can't fucking believe this," Kiba said. "He was my best man. Hinata would kill me if she knew-"

"Then she won't know will she," Sasuke intervened, "here's the story. We were interviewing the drug dealer when he killed himself and we stayed inside to try and resuscitate him. That bit's true. Then the girl must have ran out of a back window or something because we never saw her. Next thing we hear is a shot and we go out to see Naruto with his gun up. Okay?"

"But why would Uzumaki then try and save her?" Neji asked coolly.

"Well he aimed for the stomach, he clearly wasn't aiming to kill, he just didn't want her to get away." Sasuke stirred his coffee before adding, "that okay with everyone?" There was a sea of nods. "Kiba?" Kiba coughed cautiously.

"I suppose it'll have to be."

* * *

><p>When Naruto returned, dressed in a more casual get-up of polo shirt and jeans, the first thing he got was a massive hug from Kiba, who held him tightly and whispered 'sorry' into his ear before scuttling off again, running his hands through his hair and muttering to himself. Naruto just passed it off as Tsunade passing her vodka around again, and chuckled at him as he left. But as he walked into the bullpen he couldn't help but feel that something was off. First of all Neji, couldn't make eye contact with him, a feat very unusual for the man who stared the most out of everyone Naruto had ever met, and then there was Sasuke.<p>

Naruto could always tell when Sasuke was upset, it may be best friend's intuition, but for some reason he just knew. It wasn't as if his face betrayed it, it was mostly his actions, how he'd strum his fingers on the desk and tap his foot agitatedly. How he'd peer over the top of his report that he clearly wasn't reading, to glance at Naruto every few seconds, before letting his eye line drop back to the same picture of a leather sofa it was on before. As nice as a leather sofa he was sure it was, Naruto had a feeling that something was wrong with his friends.

"Alright guys, come in," a worn out Itachi announced from the doorway to his office, and Naruto found that no one else was really in any rush to get there. They lagged behind him, letting him enter the office first. Itachi mouthed a quick 'you alright?' to the blonde and got a tired nod in reply. It had been a long day for everyone.

"Take a seat, take a seat," he muttered as he logged out of his laptop, shutting it down to focus fully on the task at hand, "I was aware that this may take a while and got enough chairs brought in for you guys." They sat diligently yet everyone but Naruto tried hardest to get the seats furthest away from Itachi's questioning gaze. Naruto, all full of innocence and justice, sat right at the front, eyes almost drooping shut with exhaustion. He slumped back into the chair and leant his arm on the arm rest, his chin in his palm. He feared he'd be asleep long before the meeting even began.

"Okay, so let's make this quick shall we?" Itachi started, clicking his pen on and scribbling a note down, "someone tell me what happened."

"Well-" Sai started, before Itachi cut him off.

"With all due respect Sai, I'd prefer one of the others to tell me. And _no _covering for your mates, okay? It'll only end up in you getting fired. Whoever shot the woman will be looked at independently by the board of directors, so there's no saying what will happen. I know of similar cases that have ranged from complete dismissal of the case to a jail term, but let's not get too hasty." He noticed the lack of speaking and called one out to speak. "Naruto, I trust your judgement, tell me what happened." Naruto's eyes blinked open slowly and he sat up a little straighter.

"I was in the car …"

"Sudoku?" Itachi asked.

"Yes … and I heard a shot, so I called for backup …" Naruto paused for a bit and his eyebrows creased, confused. "Then … then Bambi came running out, and so did the guys, and next thing I knew it she was on the floor bleeding... so I went to go help her..."

"Where did Bambi come running from, Squirt?"

"The front door … I think..."

"You liar!" Neji spoke up, setting the pathway for the group's plan. He couldn't look at Naruto's face, it was now or never, and they couldn't go back.

"Yeah, we would have seen her if she came out of the front door," an upset looking Kiba offered.

"So you were near the entrance of the flat then?" Itachi asked, "What exactly were you doing?" His pen poised above the notepad, ready to scribble down whatever they offered. Sasuke spoke up.

"Well we went into the flat, and left Naruto in the car. When we arrived the dealer noticed us and held a gun to his stomach and fired. We then tried to keep him alive; Kiba performed CPR whilst I tried to phone 911 but I couldn't get through." Itachi looked at the phone records in front of him, so far all seemed to be true. "The woman must have escaped from the back exit or something, because we never saw her. Then all of a sudden we hear a gunshot and we rush outside to see what the commotion is about, and Naruto is stood there with his gun up, and the woman is on the floor."

"Is this true?" Itachi asked the others, and they all nodded in response.

"Did you all leave the flat?" Itachi asked as Naruto's face dropped, eyes looking away from his friends absolutely betrayed.

"Itachi, I didn't-" He cut in but Itachi coldly put up a hand to shut him up.

"Yes we did," Sai answered, "It was clear that the dealer was dead so we felt our presence was needed elsewhere." Itachi nodded and scribbled a note down.

"Okay, I have everything I need, you may leave now," Itachi said and they all stood up, nodding at him, the tension falling off their shoulders, "Naruto, stay in your seat. Kiba, shut the door behind you." Itachi couldn't help but notice the helpless looks that the other officers gave a static Naruto as they left the office. Neji's eyes had softened, Sasuke looked the guiltiest, but Kiba looked as if he was going to cry. The only one that kept his poker face was Sai, who was already back to his desk.

Itachi went around the outsides of his glass walled office, pulling the blinds down to stop anyone from looking in, before moving to kneel in front of Naruto. The blonde was devastated, his head hanging limp and eyes filling with tears.

"Itachi, I didn't-"

"I know you didn't, Squirt," Itachi mothered, "we have CCTV footage, you never even took your gun out of the car with you." He ran a hair through a now sobbing Naruto's hair.

"Why would they..?"

"I don't know Squirt, I don't know." He pulled the younger man into his arms and let him sob there. Itachi couldn't fathom the hurt that he must have been feeling, for three of his best friends to turn on him like that.

* * *

><p>Neji looked up from his paperwork to see Kiba beckoning him into the kitchen again, and noticed that the others were already there. He had hardly stopped thinking about Naruto since they'd sent him to his death an hour ago, and no one had come in or out of Itachi's office in that time. The office was getting tenser every minute and all they could do was watch.<p>

"Do you think it worked?" Sai asked as Neji strolled into the kitchen.

"Yes," was all that Sasuke provided as his eyes remained on the blind covered windows of the office.

"What do you think is happening in there?" Kiba asked timidly, not really wanting to know the answer.

"I presume they're discussing Naruto's punishment."

"But he doesn't _deserve _one! Am I the only one that feels fucking guilty here?" Kiba whispered ferociously.

"Of course you're not, Kiba," Neji replied coolly, "but what else can we do? Naruto's a big boy, he'll get over it."

"But he'll never forgive us! He'll never want to speak to us!"

None of the others had contemplated the effect that this would have on their relationship with Naruto, and the sudden realisation shocked them to the core.

"He'll forgive us," Sasuke nodded, more trying to convince himself than others.

* * *

><p>"As far as I'm convinced you have two options," Itachi posed now that Naruto was calmer, if calmer was the right word. Naruto was pissed, <em>seriously <em>pissed. He looked like he was going to explode any second now, with a steely glare and clenched fists. "Firstly, you could stay here..." He let the idea float in the air for a while.

"No, I'm not fucking staying with them." Naruto's glare shifted to the main office and he shook his head, all of a sudden looking very tired, "Please don't make me stay here."

Itachi smiled comfortingly. "I thought you'd say that, which is why I should really talk to you about a few of the options you could take. Both the CIA and FBI are asking for you, as well as the British intelligence agency, MI6, and various private investigatory services. The world's your oyster, Squirt, what do you want?"


	2. Chapter II

It had been incredibly hard for Naruto to finally pick one of the job offers. He knew he'd garnered some attention but the list of job offers Itachi had was long and tedious, and there were so many that he was tempted to take. He ultimately wanted to stay near enough to Miami to visit Itachi and his brother but far away so he could get away from his so-called friends, so finding a happy medium was a task and a half. Nothing seemed feasible so his urge to get away eventually overran the urge to stay nearby and he ended up accepting a job at the FBI's headquarters in Los Angeles, all the way across the other side of the country. Despite originally thinking he would be nervous to leave, Itachi reassured him that it would be an amazing opportunity to gain more respect in the world of forensics and there was always the bonus of double the pay.

"You know you're always welcome back," Itachi said as they wrapped up the meeting, "That office will never truly belong to anyone else." Naruto gave a hesitant smile and ran a hand through his hair.

"When's Kyuu coming?" He asked. Itachi gave a quick glance at his watch before replying that he'd be here any time soon, and Naruto's nerves tumbled about in his stomach. He felt sick and angry and terribly betrayed, but a small part of him wanted to make them suffer, make them believe he was getting fired for their act of stupidity. Itachi seemed to have cottoned on to this as he explained what would happen.

"So Kyuubi will come in to the head office via the desks of the others then he'll come and pick you up, take you to your office and help pack up your stuff. I'll stay in here until you come and bring your badge and gun to me, and then I'll escort you two out of the building, okay?" Naruto nodded, suddenly realising Itachi was far more cunning than he thought. "I need to make them feel as awful as they can for setting you up, it's the only chance of getting a confession out of any of them. Also, I won't lie, I'm pissed off at them for hurting my brother-in-law. Scapegoats aren't really a thing I condone, to be honest."

There was a knock on the door before a redhead walked in, he was tall but not quite as tall as Itachi, meaning he still towered over Naruto as he grabbed him into a fierce hug. He stood back up from bending to hug his brother before turning to Itachi.

"Your brother is a dickhead." Itachi put his hands up in defence.

"He's your brother too."

"Only in-law. If I wasn't married to you I wouldn't have anything to do with him. Maybe I should have never married you." Kyuubi smirked at his husband before asking the plan and getting the low-down. "Itachi Uchiha, you are a sly sly man." Itachi gave a rare grin and glanced at Kyuubi before reminding himself of the task at hand.

"Okay, okay, you go, and remember Naruto, don't go home, I have friends at the airport so we'll book you on the next flight and you can go straight there, they're sorting out your accommodation for you so don't worry about that." He looked at the man who was practically his brother. "Come here you two." He grasped both Uzumaki's in a strong hug before whispering the one phrase "I'll make up for my brother's mistakes, okay?"

* * *

><p>Sasuke's desk had a clear view of Itachi's office, which in hindsight was both an asset and a hindrance. It was an asset because he'd know when Naruto came out but it was a hindrance because he spent all of the following three hours with his eyes fixated on the door, waiting for Naruto to emerge. People would come by and try and talk to him, all the while noticing he was far more interested in the door of his brother's office, so they'd just drop their case files on his desk and hope he would read them soon.<p>

Neji's desk was rather more shielded, but this only meant he had manoeuvred his chair to the end of the desk, meaning he had far less room to work with, but he could at least see a section of the door, the rest was obstructed by a stone pillar that every recruit signed when they left the force. Among the signatures Neji could see his father's and Sasuke's father's, and Sai's father's.

Kiba had taken a different approach to his guilt, instead of waiting and hoping, he had been sat planning exactly what he would say to Naruto when he came out. The practice of his epic speech was cut off half-way when Itachi's office door opened and Naruto emerged with Kyuubi taking the lead. They walked to Naruto's office, leaving Kiba following their moves with nervous eyes. Now was better than never. He stood on shaky legs and walked to Naruto's office, raising his hand to knock on the door. His fist was suddenly grasped by a strong female grip and he turned to see a furious looking Tsunade beside him.

"I certainly hope you weren't contemplating talking to him, Inuzuka, because I may have to crush his pretty little hand of yours if you were." Her threatening tone was accompanied by a painful squeeze to his fist.

"I just want-"

"You want to what, Kiba?" She whispered ferociously, her eyes flashing, "You want to apologise for pinning a _murder _on your best friend, yeah? Somehow I don't think he'll want to listen. Fuck off back to your desk before I kick your ass so hard you will bleed from every orifice you have, including ones I will personally make for you." Kiba stumbled back to his desk, feeling the curious eyes of Neji and Sasuke on him as he sat and worked, occasionally looking up to watch Naruto pack up his things through the glass window of his office.

One such instance he stared at his best friend's profile, silently wishing he could go back in time, and Naruto's head inclined upwards, making eye contact with him. The air was static and Kiba wanted to shout sorry a million times but his mouth couldn't work so he just ended up watching Naruto's eyes dim and then divert back to his packing.

Sasuke had had enough of sitting and doing nothing. Yes, he had set his friend up, and yes, he felt guilty, but nothing could change the past, all he could do now was something to help Naruto out. He stood, suddenly knowing what to do, taking long, confident strides to his brother's office. He knocked on the door, opening it at Itachi's response.

"Hello, Sasuke, take a seat," Itachi said without looking up from his paperwork. From Sasuke's line of sight he could see the photograph attached to the documents; they were Naruto's records. "Let me just finish this." He pulled out a page titled 'Document of Dismissal,' signing at the bottom next to another previously signed signature, before slotting it back into the folder and setting it side. Moving round his office, he opened up his blinds to let in a little more light. "That's better. How can I help?"

"You're … you're firing Naruto, why on earth are you firing Naruto?"

"Pardon?"

"Firing Naruto. He's _Naruto_! Don't you think that's a bit harsh, Itachi?"

"Actually, no I don't." Came the snappy response, "From what I gather he shot and seriously injured an innocent woman. I can't give him special treatment just because he's my friend and my husband's brother. So unless you have any other information that may help his cause, there is nothing I can do." Itachi had clearly given his brother a way to confess, to admit that everything he had said was complete and utter nonsense, but Sasuke didn't take it.

"That's it then?" Sasuke asked.

"Actually no," Itachi busied himself with rearranging the folders on his desk, pulling Naruto's out. "Naruto wasn't fired. He wanted to leave and I gave him the means to do so."

"Why-"

"He wanted to leave because his best friends betrayed him. You made him out to be a murderer and surprise surprise he didn't fancy sticking around much after that, Sasuke."

"How do you know he isn't? You're taking his word over ours!"

"No Sasuke, I'm not, I never would. We have CCTV footage of Naruto leaving his gun in the car and rushing out to save Bambi. It appears 'your word' is absolute horse-hockey and even if you don't have to face repercussions on the job side of things, Naruto is leaving the building right now and you'll never see him again."

"He isn't leaving right now, he was still packing up-"

"He's just getting in the elevator." Sasuke turned to see the figure of Naruto in the lift, disappearing between closing door. He leapt out of his seat, slamming the office door open and gaining the attention of most officers in the room. The lift was already going so his pressing of the button was doing no good whatsoever. Instead, he sprinted down the stairs, occasionally skipping a few at a time, stumbling and whacking his arm or leg, grazing or bruising himself until he reached the bottom floor. By the time he was at reception Naruto was almost out of the door, and Sasuke still had to undergo the pocket search. He rushed it before running out into the car park, spotting Naruto and Kyuubi getting into Naruto's convertible. He sprinted as fast as he could, lungs heaving and legs complaining, only to have to stand and watch as the car drove away, any hope of him talking to Naruto dashed.

"Fuck." He ran his hand through his hair, pacing. Balling his hand into a fist he hit at a nearby wall. "_**FUCK!**_" Blood dripped from his knuckles as he leant on the railing overlooking the road. Any one of the tiny flashing cars could contain Naruto and he didn't know which one. A shaky sigh left his lips as he walked back to work. Bruised, battered and bleeding, this was the sight the others saw when he returned to the office.

"Jesus, he must be a pretty good fuck for you to chase after him like he's a popsicle and you're a sugar deprived schoolchild," came the snide comment from a smirking Sai.

"Fuck off, Sai," Kiba snapped back, earning a smug look from Sai, "Naruto is way more than just a fuck, Sasuke is in love with him." Sasuke felt dizzy and sick as the realisation dawned on him. He was in love with Naruto. Shit.


	3. Chapter III

_Two years on:_

Itachi sighed as he dropped his head onto his desk – it was far too late, or early as the case may be, to be working. Miami had been struck with a killer, and as awful that in itself was, the paperwork that came with it was arguably even worse. Itachi had been bogged down for a week now, and the killer had only claimed one life so far, thank God. His office was silent and looking out into the bullpen, there were only two or three people still there. Itachi pitied them, he was used to such lengthy hours at work, but they weren't. His phone rang, sounding inexplicably loud in the silence of the office, and Itachi noticed the other late-workers startle from their groggy trances.

"Hello," he answered, pushing his hair back from his forehead.

"Hey baby," came the reply from his husband and a small smile reached Itachi's lips. "You coming home any time soon?"

"I think I'm going to have to pull an all-nighter," came Itachi's reply as he glanced over the pile of paperwork, "I'm getting a bit bogged down with paperwork over here." Kyuubi's deep chuckle resonated over the phone-line and Itachi closed his eyes, excruciatingly tired.

"Well I'll bring you breakfast a bit later then," Kyuubi murmured sleepily, "the bed's awfully empty without you."

"Don't Kyuu," Itachi chuckled, "stop tempting me. You know I'd rather -"

"I know," Kyuubi teased, before sighing, "it's just I haven't seen you in a week."

"Mmm, I blame your brother for that, living all the way across the country."

"Yeah, well I blame _your _brother for that," Kyuubi laughed as Itachi rolled his eyes.

"Fair play, fair play..." he signed at the bottom of the current document, moving it to the considerably small pile of finished paperwork. Considerably small in comparison to the unfinished pile, that is. "How is your baby brother then?"

A sigh drifted over the phone-line in reply, "he's fine … he just misses home, you know?"

"Yeah," Itachi's right hand came to rub at the scruff now developing on his chin. "Anyway, you should get some sleep, you've got work tomorrow." There was a moment of comfortable silence.

"Yeah," Kyuubi murmured, "Love you."

"Love you too, I'll see you later." Kyuubi hmm-ed in response before they hung up, Itachi now not only tired but also aching from missing his husband. Eyes drooping, he rest his arms and head on the desk, falling into a steady slumber.

–

This was the position he found himself in a few hours later as his employees trickled into the office. Suit jacket crumpled and scruff showing where he clearly hadn't shaved, with a twinge in his neck that one only gets from sleeping in such awkward positions.

"You okay, Itachi," a voice sounded at the doorway as Itachi scratched his chin pensively. It was Kiba, bright eyed and bushy tailed with a genuinely curious expression on his face.

"I'm fine, Kiba," Itachi smiled, "just completely wrecked by this creepy murderer."

"The Breast Biter?"

"If that's what you're calling him, yes. Have you found anything?"

"No, the bite was far too jagged to get an impression of the killer's teeth, and I swabbed the area for saliva, it's processing now, but Tsunade's pretty run down on her own."

"Yeah well she'll manage."

"You don't want to replace him do you?" Kiba looked saddened, "Itachi, you fired him..."

"You say that as if you gave us a choice Kiba." Itachi glared over the document he was currently reading, before setting it on the desk and signing aggressively.

"What you you mean?" Kiba's eyebrows furrowed.

"You know exactly what I mean, that bullshit excuse you all came up with, you knew I wasn't going to buy it but you said it anyway."

"If you didn't buy it why did you fire him, we could have sorted it out properly?"

"You really think I fired him? Of course I didn't, he's my brother in law and one of the most genuine people I know, I could never fire him. He was distraught that you threw him under the bridge like that, so he left." Kiba looked shocked, to say the least, but Itachi was more surprised that Sasuke hadn't told him earlier. It seemed his little brother had kept that secret from the rest of his motley crew.

Various people from the office had clearly overheard their conversation and were trying to hide their shock and curiosity by turning round to their computers and appearing to be very hard at work, a rare occurrence at eight AM in the office of Miami Homicide Division. Usually the staff would be like zombies, congregating around the coffee machine as if it were a holy grail.

Itachi's eyebrows quirked, amused, as Kiba was dragged out of the office and his brother shoved his way in, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Kyuubi saw him again?" Itachi rolled his eyes, after all this time Sasuke still demanded routine updates on Naruto's life. "Did he pass on my message?"

"Does he ever pass on your messages, Sasuke?"

"No, but there's always a first time for everything."

"You need to let him go, it's not healthy for you."

"I'll let it go when I hear from him that I have to let it go."

"Isn't his moving as far away as he possibly could some sort of indication that he may not want to hear from you at all?"

"I cant give up, Itachi."

Itachi just sighed and stood up.

"We need a progress meeting for the breast biter case, we'll discuss this later."

Sasuke just sighed and followed his brother into the conference room, where the others members of staff were waiting. The room, a rectangular shape with four glass walls and a long black marble table running down the middle, was full to the brim with officers. Sasuke took his seat next to Neji and Kiba, glancing down the table at the morose looking faces of the officers there.

Itachi took his place by the big whiteboard that was positioned in the corner of the room. On it were the case photos of the body and evidence found, as well as the notes they had made so far. Thus far, it was incredibly bare. Itachi hushed the officers into silence and started his presentation of the findings.

"This," he said, pointing to a photo of the victim whilst she was still alive, "was twenty two year old Ino Yamanaka; blonde, five foot six, athletic, studying a degree in International Business Law. She was found a week ago, dumped at the rear exit of her apartment complex in downtown Miami. Although she was fully clothed, she had been raped and strangled, and showed savage bite marks on her breasts." He pointed to another photo. "There were no signs of bloody skin under the fingernails of the victim which leads us to believe that she did not struggle against her assailant." Itachi finished as a tentative hand went up into the air.

"Do we have any leads as to who this could be?"

"Based on the sexual nature of the crime and the violence caused, we're going on the assumption that our attacker is in his mid twenties, is a dominant personality and has a history of hatred towards women. Something will have set off this man to kill and we need to find what that is." He paused for a few seconds.

"Any more questions?" There was silence. "Good, I need you to really get cracking with this case, so I'm sending you off into subteams to work on various areas of the case. Thankfully there's been no other cases this week so you can focus entirely on this one." Itachi went around the room allocating each subteam the job of checking evidence, finding possible witnesses etc, he got to Sasuke, Kiba, Neji and Sai and gave them their task.

"Okay, so you guys are going to be going back to the scene of the crime, and I need you to talk to the people living in the apartments in and around the complex she was living in. Someone must have seen or heard something."

–

It turned out, as a matter of fact, that if you go calling on people's doors halfway through a Wednesday, they are most likely to be at work, so Sasuke's team found very little evidence wise.

"This is so pointless," Sai drawled as they knocked on the last door. It opened to reveal a redhead, short-ish in stature, with eerily pale skin and some sort of oriental symbol tattooed onto the temple of his forehead.

"Can I help you?" he looked unbelievably bored and spoke in monotone.

"Are you a Mr," Sasuke paused to check his notes, "Gaara Sabaku?"

"That would be me," the redhead drawled, leaning onto the side of his doorway. "As I said, how can I help you?"

"Can we ask you a few questions?" came the reply.

"You need four people to ask me some questions? What do you really want?" The four were silent.

"I … we just need to ask you questions …" Kiba was perplexed by the man's blunt demeanour.

"About?"

"Ino … Ino Yamanaka."

"Who?" The redhead looked up from a spot on the door that he had previously been scratching at.

"Ino … she lived in apartment 1B … downstairs..." came the voice of Kiba again.

"Never met her in my life."

"I'm sure you must have seen her, Mr Sabaku, she was blonde with green eyes and an athletic body. I'm sure any man with a libido would have noticed her," Neji growled. This was going nowhere fast, clearly Gaara didn't care for their investigation. All he got for his valiant offer was a smirk from the redhead.

"Now you mention it, yes, I noticed her. Only because she left alcohol bottles all over the corridor. I assure you Mr police man, I am quite homosexual." Neji was dumbstruck as the redhead walked back into his apartment, leaving the door open behind him. The four looked at one another, confused as to whether they were supposed to follow.

"So do you want to do this _interview_ then?" Gaara drawled, making them shuffle into the empty room. "Take a fucking seat then, don't stand round looking like trapped animals. _You're_ the ones wanting to talk to _me_. I suppose you'll want coffee?" The four grumbled yes in answer and seated themselves on the redhead's leather couch.

The apartment was spacious and modern, with high ceilings and whitewashed walls. It was more of a studio apartment to be honest. On the wall hung paintings and portraits, and the wall opposite the couch housed the largest photo collage Neji had ever seen in his life. As Gaara walked back into the room, Neji began asking questions.

"So do you live here alone?" Gaara quirked an eyebrow whilst taking a sip of his coffee. "Yes."

"This is an awfully large apartment for one man," Sai noted suspiciously.

"I used to have a room-mate. Then he moved away so I'm saving it for when he comes back. Which he will."

"Can we have a name for this room-mate of yours," Neji prompted, opening his notebook, "just to check."

"Naruto Uzumaki. You might have known him, didn't he work with you?" The four officers sat paralysed as Gaara stared at them curiously.

"Yeah," choked out Kiba, suddenly not wanting to drink the coffee any more. "Yeah, he did."

Gaara noticed their reluctance to speak about Naruto and so prodded the subject further.

"Did you know him?" he questioned, hands paused in making the coffee. He looked at them one by one, studying their expressions.

"These guys did," came Sai's monotone voice, "I was … _briefly acquainted_ with him."

"You were there when Bambi got shot?" came the immediate reply.

"Yes..." They watched as Gaara suddenly went from vaguely accommodating to silent and stiff, as his hand gripped the side of the kitchen counter angrily. There was a moment of angry static as they sat in complete silence, before Sasuke spoke.

"Is he … is he okay?" he paused before going on, "Kyuubi won't tell us anything … I just need to know … know if he's okay ..."

"Well I should think Kyuubi has a sound reason for not telling you anything," Gaara said, accompanied by a glare. "He's fine."

"Fine?"

"Yes, fine. Well, considering his circumstances, he is."

Sasuke didn't try to probe any further but secretly wished to know exactly what those circumstances were. Was it just that they'd betrayed him? Or was Gaara hinting at something else?

"Well if that's all guys, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I'm afraid I have an appointment I completely forgot until now."

"Your calendar is completely empty," Neji said, casting his eyes over to the calendar on the wall.

"That was my polite way of asking you to fuck off because I cannot stand to be around you any longer. Please leave."

He ushered the policemen back towards the door, past the photo collage. As the others walked on without a fuss, Sasuke became enthralled by the piece as he spotted Naruto over and over again, with that grin he missed so so much. As the others left towards the car, Gaara spoke as he and Sasuke were alone.

"He's not going to forgive you Sasuke, you broke his heart and you deserve all the pain in the world for it." One sharp push out into the corridor later, Sasuke found himself alone with the door slammed in his face.


End file.
